After being mauled in the first T20I at Kanpur, the Indian team would like to get back to winning ways in the second match, which will also keep them alive in the race of winning the series or else it will be England, who for the first time on the tour, will register a series win.
India skipper Virat Kohli made a few surprising decisions in the first T20I as he snubbed Rishabh Pant. To add to the surprise, he himself came to open the innings, thus weakening the middle order. Bringing in Yuzvendra Chahal in place of Amit Mishra was the biggest surprise that Kohli kept until the last minute.
Moving on to the second game, it’s time for India to forget the loss and have a futuristic approach and concentrate on the second game. To defeat a rejuvenated England, team India has to bring about a change in the playing XI and here is their predicted XI for the second T20I, with some expected changes that skipper Virat Kohli might bring in the squad –
Special Mention – An explanation for exclusion of MS Dhoni
Shell-shocked?
The exclusion of MS Dhoni from the squad is neither a prank nor an intention but a mere piece of advice from the former director of Indian Cricket Team, Ravi Shastri.
Shastri, in the post-match show after the Kanpur T20I, said youngsters should be given a chance to enjoy the shortest format of the game. Working upon this piece of advice from him, it is an experiment to leave out Dhoni from the squad so as to allow him to fully concentrate on his batting in 50-overs format.
Also, with Dhoni contemplating to play the 2019 World Cup, it’ll be good for him to just focus on the 50-overs cricket, as we have seen many other players in past just concentrating on one format of the game so as to have a satisfying future in the format of their choice.